This week Mayor Kasim Reed is rolling out his initiative to create a more sustainable Atlanta. He wants to be in the top 10 cities by 2012. Currently Atlanta is #19. So clearly there is a lot of work to do.
The wisdom is in the room.
Part of the work started two weeks ago when the organization Sustainable Atlanta brought together 150 of the city’s brightest leaders to envision what sustainability looks like for Atlanta.
We had a World Cafe style meeting, which I love. Small tables covered with white butcher paper consume the room and people sit in groups of four or five and have deep, engaging conversations. Then they switch tables and cross-pollinate their ideas.
This kind of meeting creates an atmosphere for deep conversations. There’s always tons of energy and creativity in the room. Ideas and concepts get drawn on the table cloths. New alliances are forged. It almost always produces a great result because one of the premises of the World Cafe is that the wisdom is in the room you just need to tap into it.
I captured all this in two large murals which are on display at city hall this week. Part two of the conversation is supposed to take place in a month or so.
An example of using visual maps in a report.
And if you’re a policy wonk type, you can read the report on Atlanta’s sustainability initiative here. My murals are in there as well.